In a move to further boost and strengthen the blood donation drive in the state, the Maharashtra State Blood Transfusion Council (SBTC) is all set to gear up its activities across all the urban and rural areas soon. In a unique move, the SBTC have directed all the civic bodies in each of the districts to conduct a thorough review of the blood requirements in the area and conduct blood donation drive accordingly.

As per the plan, the SBTC in association with these civic body will carry out dedicated blood donation camps every 6 months to boost the supply of blood. Apart from that special measure will also be taken to ensure that all citizens are duly aware about their responsibilities and importance of timely blood donation.

SBTC is known for its expertise in generating good response from the people through their existing plan which usually involves drives through hospitals, associations etc. However, by strengthening their initiatives through tie-up with civic bodies they hope to further breach gap to get across rural population in the far-flung area as well.

“We have been relentlessly working to generate sense of responsibility among the people about the importance of donating blood. It is important to get across the message among the people that blood donation is one of the simplest but most efficient medium to save a person's life. We are happy that all our efforts are being paid off properly and that people are pro actively reaching out to donate blood, which is why today Maharashtra contributes to 17 per cent of the total blood collection in the country.”

Interestingly, the Maharashtra state government's ambitious 'blood on call' initiative which was done through the Maharashtra SBTC was recently recognised by the Skoch Digital Inclusion Awards 2014. Under the blood on call initiative, all that a needy citizen need to do is just call the toll free number provided by the government and register a request for blood, which will be at the earliest, passed on to the registered blood centre close to the patients given location. A representative from the blood centre will then take the blood sample from the patient and then deliver the blood suitable to his or her Rh group at a very affordable price of Rs.450 at the hospital.